Shoulder pad for garments



Man-ch27, 1951 J. K. WILSON SHOULDER PAD FOR GARMENTS Filed Feb. 2, 1949 r O I. n e U n 1 JOHN Kl/VG WILSON Patented Mar. 27, 1951 UNITED s rares PATENT orrrce John K. Wilson, London, England Application February 2, 1949, Serial No. 74,135

. In Great Britain November 7', 1947 1 Claim. (oi; 2268) This invention relates to shoulder pads for use in the manufacture of garments.

In the tailoring trade it is customary for a craftsman to obtain the desired sartorial effect in the vicinity of the shoulder of a garment by building up and shaping ashoulder pad with one or more layers of wadding, which demands skill and frequently occupies considerable time; while in the manufacturing tailoring trade, in which cheap, semi-skilled labour and economical production costs are of importance, it is usual to employ ready-made shoulder pads composed of shaped layers of wadding stitched together and bevelled towards the neck of the garment.

When a tailor fits a garment to a customer it may either be necessary to add to or to subtract from the wadding of the pad he has built into the garment, and when a pad becomes bulky and heavy its presence is not only noticeable when the garment is worm but it is also felt by the wearer. Further, if a reduction of the pad is found necessary at a fitting, it may necessitate undoing the shoulder of the garment and taking the pad to pieces and re-building it.

In the manufacturing trade garments with ready-made pads are frequently supplied to the wearer from stock without a preliminary fitting and are sometimes unsightly in wear owing to 'l-fitting shoulder pads. On the other hand, when a fitting is given, pieces must either be plucked out of a ready-made pad, or additional layers must be applied thereto, and in the absence of skill, the shoulder and/or the sleeve of the garment breaks around the vicinity of the pad and the set of the shoulder is unsightly.

The present invention has for its object to obviate all the above-mentioned disadvantages and to provide a shoulder pad of light weight, minimum bulk, and which can be adjusted to the shoulders of the wearer without necessitating re cutting or otherwise altering the material of a garment in order to obtain the desired fit and smooth unbroken appearance when the garment is in wear.

To this end, a shoulder pad according to the present invention comprises a pre-shaped casing or envelope of flexible material adapted to fit around the shoulder of a garment and to be adjusted to the configuration of the shoulders of the wearer by the insertion of such an amount of wadding into the open mouth of the casing or envelope as is necessary to produce the desired smooth and unbroken effect when the garment is made up and in wear.

This casing or envelope consists of an arcuate upper wall of semi-stiff material to which a lower wall of an extensible material is attached as a chord to the curvature of the component upper wall.

In one constructional form of the invention the aforesaid upper wall may be composed of two layers of hair cloth disposed with hairs extending in opposite directions, and. the lower wall may be composed of a layer of felt, and the configuration of the casing or envelope is preferably such that it extends from the point of the shoulder to the neck point of the garment and is also preferably continued to and down the back arm. Further in order to prevent the hairs of the hair cloth from working through the material of the garment the upper wall is preferably covered with a thin layer of wadding encased in a layer of calico or other suitable substance. Alternatively, the edges of the hair cloth wall may be bound. if desired. Also, if desired, a flap may be added adjacent the mouth of the envelope.

The above constructional form of the invention is illustrated by way of example in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a plan view, partly broken away, of the casing or envelope as it appears when laid fiat on a table or like support;

Figure 2 is a front View of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a perspective view showing the casing or envelope applied to a persons shoulder, the coat being shown in chain lines; and

Figure 4 is a perspective view of a prepared wadding pad for insertion within the open mouth of the casing or envelope.

The casing or envelope consists of a base layer 1 of felt or other similar soft extensible material which is substantially triangular in plan with an integral extension 2 extending fromthat side of the triangle which is to be directed towards the back of a coat sleeve, and stitched to the upper side of the base layer 1 is an arcuate wall composed of a substantially triangular layer 3, of hair cloth which is reinforced by a second triangular layer 4 also of hair cloth located centrally and stitched to the wall 3. i

Above the upper arcuate wall 3 is stitched an outer layer 5 of canvas serving to stiffen the arch of the wall 3 and also to prevent the hairs composing the hair cloth from working through the materialof the finished garment.

In use the casing or envelope is inserted beneath the shoulder of the coat or jacket being fitted so that the apex of the triangular base is adjacent the neck point of the coat, with the extension 2 directed down inside the back arm, and,

in accordance with the configuration of the shoulders of the wearer the casing or envelope is built up to the requisite extent by the insertion of sufficient wedding into the mouth of the envelope to support the arcuate upper wall thereof at the desired height. In some cases this building up may be effected by the insertion into the casing or envelope of a pre-formed pad 6 of known construction as shown in Figure 4, a pad of the desired thickness being selected from stock. When employing the Dre-formed pads 6 instead of the triangular layers 3 and i the pie-shaped casing or envelope consists only of the base layer E of felt and the outer canvas triangular layer 5 which are stitched together along their opposite sides and at the apex of the triangular base and layer leaving the base side thereof unstitched to form the mouth of the envelope or casing through which may be easily and readily inserted a preformed pad 6 of a thickness required.

A foundation for the shoulder of a coat is thus formed which is of such construction and lightness that the finished coat shows no evidence of the existence of a shoulder pad and the wearer 1 isnot able to feel its presence.

What I claim is:

In a pad for the shoulder and sleeve of a garment, including a generally triangular envelope having an open mouth along the base side thereof and an insert of wadding within said envelope, the combination with a relatively stifi inextensible upper wallof said envelope and of a base wall of extensible felt continued integrally as an elongated shaped crease-preventing extension adapted to be directed down the back of the shoulder and into the sleeve of the garment.

JOHN K. WILSON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,117,163 Haspel May 10, 1938 2,329,496 VValCOfi Sept. 14, 1943 2,395,024 Tangorra Feb. 19, 1946 2,410,986 Mechur Nov. 12, 1946 2,424,662 Lavin July 29, 1947 2,459,489 Bloom Jan. 18, 1949 

